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Tag: explores

Tag &raquo explores

This OnPoint is the first in a series of three OnPoints that explore issues around culture and teaching. This OnPoint describes the way in which NIUSI defines culture and how to think about educational settings and scenarios from the point of view of culture. The second OnPoint in this series focuses on teacher’s identity. The third OnPoint addresses how classrooms are enriched by the funds of knowledge and assets that children and their families bring with them from their homes and...

An infusion of federal funding and philanthropic support for high schools has sparked an unprecedented number of educational reforms. Still, few initiatives confront the unique conditions facing Black male students. Despite efforts to reform ineffective schools and foster academic achievement for all students, there continues to be a lingering gap between affluent and poor as well as White and Black subgroups. This article explores the complexities of these issues. The authors examine the...

The central concern of this book is the assumption that pedagogical knowledge is generated "outside-in"; that is, from the university, to be applied at schools. The first half of this book provides a thoughtful and thought-provoking conceptual framework for reading and understanding teacher research, exploring its history, potential, and relationship to university-based research. Cochran-Smith and Lytle argue that teacher research can transform, not simply add to, the present knowledge...

A perennial challenge for urban education in the United States is finding effective ways to address the academic achievement gap between African American and White students. There is widespread and justified concern about the persistence of the achievement gap. In fact, historical evidence suggests that this achievement gap has existed at various times for groups other than African Americans. What conditions prevailed when this achievement gap existed for these other groups? Conversely...

This exploration into competency-based innovation at the school, district, and state levels suggests that competency-based pathways are a re-engineering of our education system around learning—a re-engineering designed for success in which failure is no longer viable. Competency-based approaches also hold promise as districts explore new ways to expand and enrich support to students, challenging the assumption that learning takes place within the classroom.

The continued low academic attainment of Black pupils is now a well-established, familiar feature of the annual statistics of educational attainment. Black pupils tend to consistently perform below their white counterparts and below the national average. Key debates, examining how to address the difference in attainment gap, have tended to focus almost exclusively on the achievements of Black male pupils with little explicit attention paid to the needs and experiences of their female...

The eminence, safety, and well-being of nations have been entwined for
centuries with the ability of their people to deal with sophisticated quantitative
ideas. Leading societies have commanded mathematical skills that have brought
them advantages in medicine and health, in technology and commerce, in
navigation and exploration, in defense and finance, and in the ability to understand
past failures and to forecast future developments. History is full of examples.
During most of the 20th...

In the wake of both the end of court-ordered school desegregation and the growing popularity of accountability as a mechanism to maximize student achievement, the authors explore the association between racial segregation and the percentage of students passing high-stakes tests in Florida's schools. Results suggest that segregation matters in predicting school-level performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test after control for other known and purported predictors of standardized...

The rise of accountability policies during the early 1990s coincided with an increase in the achievement gap between white and minority students, reversing decades of steady improvement in outcome equity. This article explores the policies that helped to reduce the achievement gap before 1990, the effects of the subsequent shift toward accountability, and what can be learned from past successes to guide the future development of accountability systems. An extensive review of research...

The rise of accountability policies during the early 1990s coincided with an increase in the achievement gap between white and minority students, reversing decades of steady improvement in outcome equity. This article explores the policies that helped to reduce the achievement gap before 1990, the effects of the subsequent shift toward accountability, and what can be learned from past successes to guide the future development of accountability systems. An extensive review of research...

This paper assesses university students' acquisition of simple and complex knowledge, in exploring whether the knowledge gap hypothesis (KGH) with its origins in community-based research into people's informal learning from mass media, provides insights into students' acquisition and retention of information. The KGH posits that attempts to equalise knowledge within a community by releasing new information into it often either has no such effect, or even worsens knowledge inequities. The...

The academic achievement gap of students of color and low-income students as compared to middle and upper socioeconomic students and White students has been clearly documented. Historically the long-standing role of the school counselor has contributed to the status quo of these inequities, inadvertently maintaining educational and social disparities. This has been reflected in school counselors' training, role or job descriptions, and actual practice. This article explores the need for a...

This study examines perspectives of educators on the advanced placement opportunity gap for African American students. Using interviews with 11 educators from 10 high schools, we explored their perceptions regarding the impact of a local academic achievement program on the enrollment of African American students in honors and advanced placement courses. Results of the analysis suggest that there is a perceived and real gap in the participation of African American students in AP courses...

A serious imbalance exists in today's African American undergraduate student population in which the number of women far outnumber the number of men. Although at the macro level, political, sociological, and economic forces frame this gender enrollment gap, scant research has explored microlevel influences such as parents and parenting. This study uses a qualitative methodology and Hossler's model of college choice to examine African American parent involvement during the search stage. The...

This study explores differences in mathematics assessment results between American Indian students in Western New York and their Anglo peers. The sample consisted of 2,256 fourth grade students (Native=323 Anglo=1933) and 2,475 eighth grade students (Native=353 Anglo=2122). Scores from New York State's Fourth and Eighth Grade Math Assessments were examined to identify areas of mathematics that contribute to the gap in performance. Analysis of scores indicated that 58[percent] of Native...

Abstract. There has been longstanding concern about achievement differences across ethnic groups. Inattention is a significant factor associated with underachievement, and higher ratings of inattention have been found for some minority groups. The present study examined the relationship between inattention and achievement across Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic first graders. Thirty-three teachers rated over 600 students on their academic achievement, inattentive classroom behavior...